


don't give in to hope, kid

by onelastwit (trailtothetruth)



Series: twin hopes [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, OCs mentioned very briefly, Snake metaphors, shin overthinks too hard, yall boys play too many games just kiss already
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 08:51:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18117437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trailtothetruth/pseuds/onelastwit
Summary: "You are my hope," Dredgen Vale murmurs on that last day.(HUGE spoilers for new Joker's Wild lore.)





	don't give in to hope, kid

**Author's Note:**

> I should mention that I got to the tapes portion of Drifter's loyalty quest about an hour after I wrote this and instantly decided that those tapes don't matter and aren't real - instead, Drifter has been working the long con with the Shadows and a certain Dredgen Vale because everything is fine T>T

“You are my hope,” Vale murmurs on their last day. The other Dredgen’s fingers card through his hair, holding him close.   
  
They are two off puzzle pieces, not quite there and not quite apart. Dredgen Hope drifts in and out of his life like a snake disappearing and reappearing in the grass. Vale knows that it’s a foolish thing to hope for him to stay. Dredgen Hope is the only one who knows the full scope of the long game they’re playing, the only Shadow who knows who Vale really is. The Man with the Golden Gun. Shin Malphur. Dredgen Vale. And Hope will never stop searching for that power that fuels him, so Vale will let Hope go, and-   
  
“Have a little faith, brother.” Hope grins at him, flicking a copper coin between his fingers as he pushes back from the other Dredgen. “I’ll find what we need. Secrets to all that Darkness. Then I’ll make  _ bank.”  _ His eyes are dark and beady.   
  
“And how do you think I’ll find you again?” Vale rolls his eyes. “You shed skins like a snake.”   
  
“Psh, come on now. I’d recognize you faster than you could draw that hand cannon of yours.” Hope flicks the coin. “Ding.” Vale restrains himself from rolling his eyes again, but the other Dredgen’s cheerful expression drops. “You know the plan. We’ve been over this for months. Give ‘em a taste of the Dark, but not too much. Find the right ones. We’ll survive this apocalypse.”

“I know.” Vale’s own voice sounds hollow. “Just don’t take too long.”  
  
He takes too long. They don’t see eachother for many, many years after that day.

-

Shin keeps himself busy, of course. Founder of the Shadows of Yor, Man with the Golden Gun on the side. Sometimes he swears Hope rubbed off on him more than he’d like - now he’s the one switching skins like a snake.

He stays away from the public, though. It’s a dangerous and long game they’re playing, managing his Shadows, keeping up the hunt for those who follow Yor too far- and for Hope. Eli.

He’d never admit it to a living soul, of course, but damn does he miss the man’s awful jokes. His appetite was even worse. The man could eat anything. Vale misses Eli, and sometimes it swallows him up.    
  
Faith in the plan. Faith in the plan.   
  
Shin Malphur watches, and waits, and waits.

-

“Someone in the city is calling those who excel at his game Dredgens.” Bane tells him one day. “Do you think..?”

The whispers from the city grow louder about a man called the Drifter, and Vale watches and marvels at the game Hope’s built. Of course they’d had no idea what he’d find out there, but he’s done it. And Guardians  _ love  _ it. They’re flocking in, and the stakes get higher. The opportunity of the Dark grows, and the next act of the plan is put into place. Callum plays his role, riles up some of the new Shadows, gains foothold in the right circles to get it to the right people, and he smiles at Vale when he dies. No matter the parts they were playing, it was a dignified death, and they knew it.

Callum’s sacrifice does exactly what they planned it to. The unruly Shadows stop or are stopped. The amount of guardians pouring in, wanting to be “Dredgens” slows. Everyone is afraid of the Man with the Golden Gun, and for good reason. Everyone wants a Malfeasance, and for good reason.

Shin begins the next step - befriending the Gunslinger called Glyph, the hero of the war, and the first one who found Callum.   
Faith in the plan, Hope reminds him. Faith in the plan.

(Shin laughs for the first time in a long, long time when he thinks of the expression that must’ve been on Hope’s face when he saw one of his two champions with The Last Word.)

-

He feels very tired and yet very alive as he steps foot into the Tower. It’s still as loud, bright and colorful as he remembers it, even as the evening winds down.   
That’s it, then. He’s given his last secret to the two champions of Hope - the Gunslinger who carries The Last Word, and the Nightstalker named Zan who carries the first Malfeasance. They are the ones they’ve been looking for. Now time to wrap up his own ends, and they all lead back to one man.

Hope’s hunched over a terminal when Shin approaches and he mumbles “Yeah, yeah, yeah guardian, I got a match for you, give me a sec-” He turns, and freezes.

They stand there, and Shin wonders if this is where a hundred guardians pop out of the woodwork and shoot him with Malfeasance. But it’s just him and Eli again, staring at eachother, and he attempts a simple “Hey.”

“You did it.” Hope says. His eyes are hollow in a way they were never before. “Look what I did for you.” There’s bitterness in his voice. “I  _ gave up  _ on hoping you’d ever come back. I told those kids to not give into hope because  _ look  _ what it does to you. Are you happy, brother? I got our saviors.”

Vale is, for once, lost for words. He was an idiot to expect the same jovial Hope he lost so long ago. Dammit, he’s a fucking fool. He can’t even open his mouth, and when he does, it comes out all wrong.   
  
“You told me to have faith in the plan.” His voice breaks, pathetically. “Hope-”   
  
“That’s not my name.”

“You were my hope.”

They both stop.

Drifter’s voice is deathly quiet when he speaks again. “I have seen  _ horrors  _ you cannot imagine. You haven’t seen shit. And you want to run with me again?”

Vale doesn’t dare hope at all. He doesn’t answer.

“C’mon, brother.” Drifter’s voice is exasperated as he pulls Vale in for a kiss like a wave crashing over his head. Their teeth bump uncomfortably together, Drifter’s hands roaming like he wants to map Shin all over again, and Shin doesn’t know what to do with his own hands but settles for them framing the other man’s face when he pulls back.   
  
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Shin breathes out into the shared air between them, “but I’m here now.”   
  
“I know you are.” Drifter pulls a mockery of his old smile, it is older and meaner but still devilish, and it is something. It is a beginning.


End file.
